U.S. ARMY AIR CORPS
Peter Cohen
Peter Cohen served as an aviation cadet for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. As an aviation cadet, Cohen could train as a pilot, navigator, or bombardier — all were needed in great numbers during the war.
“This is when they were losing people unbelievably,” he said. “They lost so many air crews, mainly over Germany.”
Cohen was born in England in 1925. He immigrated to Rochester, N.Y., at age 7. He enlisted 11 years later at age 18. Cohen was the second student at the Vermont Academy to enlist.
“I lost my independence on Independence Day, July 4, 1943,” he said.
At first, one needed two years of college to be considered for the aviation cadet program as well as enduring a rigorous physical. After getting desperate for aircrews, the college requirement was changed to a high school diploma.
“If you enlisted, they were committed to you,” Cohen said. “Once you enlisted as a cadet, they couldn’t take you out and stick you in the infantry.”
At the time of his service, Cohen said he felt like he was missing a lot of adventure during cadet training. Cohen said he realizes now how lucky he is that he wasn’t shot and that he didn’t have to shoot anyone. After basic training, Cohen had a couple months of study at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. Cohen and his fellow cadets endured numerous tests, including tests for vision and hand-eye coordination, among others. One involved an aircraft control stick and a board with lights, which, from Cohen’s description, sounds like an early form of video games.
“After all that testing, we selected what we wanted to do, and of course I wanted to be a pilot,” Cohen said.
But, the shortage of pilots had begun to reverse itself, in part because the United States began winning the air war. Cohen said some of his fellow cadets got in at the end of the war serving as co-pilots on bombers. An officer told the cadets there was a great shortage of navigators, so eventually Cohen attended gunnery school in the Gulf of Mexico.
Navigation school in Louisiana followed. Cadets learned piloting, “dead reckoning” — using only instruments to get where they needed to go — and celestial navigation. Celestial navigation was “not easy,” Cohen said.
“One fellow once asked, ‘Are we west or east of the Mississippi?’” Cohen said.
During training in San Antonio, Texas, Cohen and three of his fellow cadets contracted pneumonia. Cohen spent five months in the hospital.
“This was in the days when penicillin was just coming to this country and the military got it first,” he said.
One shot of penicillin cost $400. Cohen got “washed out” in navigation school. He had been “cadet of the day,” meaning he was responsible for waking everyone up, among other duties. The others begged him to let them sleep an extra hour. Cohen did and was “washed out” after his superiors found out.
“I was crushed,” Cohen said.
After being eliminated as an aviation cadet, Cohen was sent to cryptology school at the University of Illinois. The European war had ended and the military was going to send Cohen to the Pacific.
“A week before, an order came out [that said] if you had over two years of service you weren’t going,” he said.
Cohen was honorably discharged in 1946 as a private. The first thing he did after the service was get his pilot’s license, which he earned about two to three months after getting out. He has over 2,500 hours of flight time.
“I have a passion about flying,” Cohen said. “I love it.”
In fact, he and another avid Ellsworth pilot, Dr. Lloyd Harmon, once owned a plane together. After completing his dream, Cohen finished his undergraduate education at the University of Rochester. He worked in Washington, D.C., for a couple of years before earning a graduate degree in architecture. Cohen taught architecture at Cornell University for 25 years. He had been a Fulbright Scholar and did a stint in Afghanistan. Cohen moved to Maine after retiring in 1985. He has been married to Sally Cohen since 1981. Each brought three sons and a daughter to the marriage.
— Jennifer Osborn
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